The Continuum Paradox

There's nothing we like more than a good paradox. Time travel happens to be the perfect medium for staging flashbacks and flash-forwards in a plot - but of course it can provide so much more than that. It's so non-linear!

Last year we began watching what has turned out to be the SyFy channels best product since the original Battlestar Galactica - Continuum. It's got a lot going for it including:

• Great acting and well chosen actors
• An interesting sci-fi plot (making it seem like less of a cliche than perhaps it is)
• Great special effects for a TV series
• The Smoking Man (yes, he's been hiding in Vancouver all these years).
• The hottest sci-fi actress since James Kirk's (pick any) girlfriend - wait she was Jim Kirk's girlfriend - yikes. 
• Clothes that change color based on what's happening.
• Vancouver of the future (looks pretty cool, of course we've still not really seen the Vancouver of the present).
• Wiki-leaks gone bad terrorists with an Internet name. 
• That bald guy who was in Madmen and about 20 other shows (he's good, we just can't remember who he is).

Rachel Nichols - star of Continuum in her mood suit.

The future in this Dystopian series looks pretty grim. Corporations, technology and the Patriot Act on steroids have all but eradicated personal freedoms. But the cops are cool and the Bill Gates of 2077 or 2079 or whenever it is has had a crisis of confidence about the world he helped to create. He is none other than the Smoking Man... Where's this guy been since 1990's ? And where are the cigs? We're guessing that they're totally illegal in 2079 even for Alec Sadler (a.k.a. Bill Gates or maybe he's Larry Ellison but definitely not Steve Jobs).

Season 2 was better than Season 1 - but they were both good which bodes well for Season 3

Now, there's another web series out there also called Continuum so don't get confused - it's experimental and not quite ready for prime time, see below...

The Continuum knock off - we really don't know what the hell it's about

And apparently Continuum just sounds like a cool title because John Mayer used it for his latest album too...

Before we depart; let's list a few of our favorite paradoxical plot twists from the SyFy Continuum series:

• Did Rachel going cause the terrorist attack?
• Did Alec's dad work for him in the future only to become his dad in the past?
• Did Liber8te invent their terrorist network on Twitter?
• Did Carlos (the sidekick) star in shampoo commercials in the alternative time stream?
• Does Alec send bimbo girlfriends to himself in the past?
• Does Mark Zuckerburg help corporations take over the world?

We'll have to wait for Season 3 to find out the answer to these and more...


Copyright 2013, Raving Reviews

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What The Frack? Galactica on Youtube.com

It sounds a bit like a Cylon plot, but this week the SyFy network and Youtube announced that the much anticipated "Blood and Chrome" prequel will be aired on the the Youtube's Machinima Prime channel starting this Friday. It seems like the Digital launching a surprise attack on the Analog, doesn't it? We're not quite sure what to think and perhaps this will be interesting experiment - will viewers be able to tolerate spreading the prequel pilot into 8 to 12 minute chunks? Will playing it on Youtube first generate more interest than might have otherwise been the case?

The Cylons will be streaming into your home, but will they be fully buffered?

It's not clear whether any more of the series will be produced but it seems as though this move certainly puts that in jeopardy if the result ends up being that the SyFy premier (which will air sometime after the web series concludes) has fewer viewers instead of more. Not too long ago we heard news about Netflix pursuing original content as well. Way back in the stone age, similar questions arose when the fledgling cable networks like HBO and Showtime starting producing original content instead of just airing cinema releases or reruns. Business models in Hollywood are shifting again although this time with the media product being released more or less simultaneously across two mediums it may be a little harder than usual to measure success. If it does well, it's not clear who would produce a follow-on series and whether that would be presented in the same manner as the pilot.

Before the Cylons got sexy - they had Heavy Metal...

As for story, we haven't seen it yet but have always been intrigued by the Adama back story. It promises to be purer than the somewhat confusing Caprica series (which went off into its own virtual reality tangent - although for the most part we did like it). The biggest problem it has to overcome is that we already know the outcome in advance, the humans win - this time around anyway. 

The ever-popular Cylon Toaster

There are a few things about Galactica that we know we'll really enjoy no matter what happens with the plot; for example the prolific use of the word "Frak" and Cylons in general. Cylons are the more menacing, robotic alter-egos of Star War's storm-troopers. There's something about chrome that is undeniably irresistible as most car-lovers can attest to. In the years since Gallactica was first released we have seen a number of household products patterned after Cylon technology. We'd like to suggest several more products that might benefit from a Cylon design makeover:

• The Cylon Washing Machine - A stylish stainless steel and chrome finish allows you to make a fashion statement while keep your skintight bodysuits super-clean. It even comes with an 'eradicate all humans' washing cycle.
• The Cylon Upright Vacuum - It's intelligent, can vacuum by itself and perform hyper-light jumps into other rooms for the speediest clean ever.
• The Cylon Ipad - It wasn't designed by Steve Jobs, it is Steve Jobs as he inserted his brain patterns into each and every unit as its AI engine. Watch out, he's or it is a bit temperamental.

Speaking of AI, we will be reviewing a Raving Classic next time - "2001, A Space Odyssey" and will even write some suggested Epic Rap battle lyrics for a HAL versus Watson duel. Stay tuned.

Copyright 2012 - Raving Reviews - All Rights Reserved

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SyFy Channel - Wy ?

First it was Caprica, next came Stargate Universe - the two anchors of the season canceled in mid-season. Then SyFy renews Haven and picks up Merlin and seems to be going forward with Sanctuary.

It seems as though SyFy is morphing into SyFantaSy which may help to explain how any of its programming could coexist with professional wrestling. We were worried when they changed the name of the channel a few years back - as if programming science fiction was too narrow or too embarrassing to embrace - now they've gone and done this.

Admittedly, neither show was that great, but at least they were both real science fiction shows and we watched diligently hoping somehow they'd improve. But perhaps the writing staffs of the SyFy channel shows have been watching too much wrestling or worse yet Harry Potter movies and the exposure proved damaging to their cognitive and creative abilities.

Caprica Season 1.5 Preview

We know Caprica was stupid - but it was OUR kind of stupid ok? Can we make a series based on Inception, please? Anything - just no more Harry Potter, Sexy Vampires or Wrestling !!!


Copyright 2010, Raving Reviews

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